Operating device for railway car couplers



Dec. 19, 1933- c. M. GOLDINGER OPERATING DEVICE FOR RAILWAY CAR COUPLERS 2 sheets-sheet 1 Filed Nov. 20, 1951 fnvez zzoz": 0211M 5010 1 1 er Htlome DC- l9, GOLDINGER OPERATING DEVICE FOR ,RAILWAY CAR COUPLERS Filed Nov. 20, 1931 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 1120212 for:

Car] 1W. 6010 132 21".-

Aihfe Patented Dec. 19, Q 933 OPERATING DEVICE FOR'RAILWAY CAR V COUPLERS Carl M. Goldinger, Tarentum, Pa., assignor to Union Metal Products Company, Chicago, 111., a corporation of Delaware Application. November 20, 1931. Serial. No. 576,285?

6 Claims;

The:invention.relates to railway cars and more particularly to:v a; device foruoperating a railway car coupler which comprises an operating: rod operablefromithe'sideof the car and: connected l to the2lo'ck ofxa car'coupler'so. as. tounlockthe coupler uponv rotation. thereof and to. thrcw the knuckle. of the: coupler. upon. further. rotation thereofc One: of the objects of theinvention. is toprovidea such". an operating device, or more particmlady; to2=proyide1meanstorotat'e the operating rod: of. such: ai-deviceliwhichr comprises a; depending hsndlei'arliacent the. side; of: the car which is iconnected to the operating rod? so that a=swing ing movement of the handle through a companatively small. arc rotates the. operating! rod throughzailanger. arcwhereby thexswi'nging movement: of the handle necessary to operate the cou pler: is: very: smallias compared: to the. operating red. having: a. depending. handlerigidly attached to it i It is. necessary torotate the operating. rod

about; one hundred (100)- degrees to throw-the knuckle oi: the American Railway 'Association standard coupler and the outer depending handle isvertically positioned, therefore, when the handlehas been swung sufiicientlyto throw the knuckle it is in a substantially horizontal position, which means that the operators arm is in a verypoor position to pullyery hard upon the handle; in fact, he'cannot pull as much at the endiof the' movement of the handle ashe can at the start ofsuch movement which is just exactly the oppositetowhat is requiredf'or'proper operation of the coupler.

In my. iinproved arrangement at the ,end'of theonehundred (100) degrees rotation of the operating port the. handle is considerably below a horizontal position so that the-operator is in betten'positionto exert a force upon the handle. Furthermore, in my device with a constant force being applied by the operator to the handle the power transmitted: thereby to the operating rod is gradually andfconstantly increased so that very little power is-exerted during the first movement at my: device when all that isdone is to take up the slack between the component parts of: the operating device andthe coupler. During the secondimovement when more power. is required to unlock the coupler the powerexerted by my device has'been. materially increased by the rearrangement of the parts of my device and. during thethird movement when stillmore power is required tothrow the knuckle of the coupler the power has-been further increased by a still so that he is not watching his-hand.

been unlocked.

further rearrangement of the several parts. This comparative short movement ofthehandle also givesa snap :to. the operating. device which is muchjmore.effeetive-than a'slow'moving device;

Another object of the-invention is to. arrange 603 the handle and its associated'zpartsso that the operators hand willinot be injured when grabbing the handle, which'act'. is frequently donein the dark and perhaps. while" signaling the" engineer 66 Another object of. the invention'is to provide such a device that after it isassembledthe-sevreral associated parts are held together by a single member. Y 7

Another object of' the invention is to provide 711 a device having a handle requiring a comparatively small swinging movement. to operate the devicetodecreasethe'possibility of the operators elbow being hit when coupling two' cars and; also to decrease thepossibility of anoperators body b being' penetrated by the" handle when: coupling two cars.

In the" drawings: Fig. 1 shows a typical application of? mydevice to-a:railwaycar. 1

Fig. 2 is'. a planview of Fig. 1'. Fig. 3 isaside view of- Fig. l; 1 Fig. 4isan: enlarged view of: the connectorbetween the-handleand the operating rod.

Fig. 5 isa side view-of Fig; 4' andshows the devicein normalposition. Y

1 Fig. 6 shows the device when theslack has been taken up; I

Fig. 7- shows the" device whenthe coupler has 90. Fig. 8 shows the'device-when theknuckle has been-thrown. j

In thedrawingsthe usual parts of the" car are shown; such. as endi wall. 2:; striking casting 3 coupler carrier; coupler 5; coupler rotor 6? and 95.v corner connection 7 The coupler 5 shown. is of the type having. a rotor or lever arm Bsecured to the bottomof the coupler to-whichthe operating rod 10 is attached so that upon rotation of the operating rod therotor or lever actuates'the 0011:- pler to unlock it, or. upon furtherv movement,.to throw the knuckle. These are called bot'ton l op-- erated couplers. Other couplers,.not illustrated; have a lock lifter attached to the lock ofv the coupler so that upon vertical movement of" the lifter'theco'upler is operated. My device is also applicable to'such type of coupler.

In the form illustrated the depending handle 11- is pivotally attached to a bracket 12 mounted upon the car and the lever 14 is also'pivotally secured to preferably the same bracket, which lever 14 has a sliding engagement with the handle. The operating rod 10 has its inner end 16 operatively connected to the coupler and has its outer end slidably and non-rotatably connected to said lever, preferably by having a rectangular portion 18 extending through a rectangular aperture in the lever 14. In this arrangement the lateral movement of the coupler which is trans mitted to the operating rod causes the operating rod to slide through the lever so that the lever isnot moved sidewise of the car. The handle is preferably bent outwardly at 20 to form a cam surface which arrangement also permits the operating rod to be eccentrically supported by the lever, as shown in Fig. 5, so that the weight of the outer portion of the operating rod causes the lever and the handle to swing toward the car by gravity thus stabilizing the device and preventing it from swinging, which swinging might unlock the coupler or unlock the coupler anti-creep feature. Bending the handle outwardly allows the pivot point of the handle to be placed nearer the car, gives a quicker take-up for the first part of the handle movement and works easier all around than a straight handle.

l The operation of the device is as follows; (the degrees given being merely for comparative purposes). First, the handle is moved through an are A (14), as shown in Fig. 6, which moves the horizontal axis of the operating rod through arc B (30) which movement takes up the slack between the component parts of the coupler and the operating device. Second, the handle is moved to are C (22), as shown in Fig. 7, which moves the horizontal axis of the operating rod through are D (40), whereupon the coupler has been unlocked. Third, the handle is moved through are E (22), as shown in Fig. 8, which moves the horizontal axis of the operating rod through arc F (30), whereupon the knuckle of the coupler has been thrown.

In the preferred form the bracket 12, which is mounted upon the car, is provided with an upper journal 30 and a lower journal 31 and a hood 3334 above each of said journals. The handle 11 is provided with a hook 36 at its upper end which rotatably engages the upper journal 30 and the lever 14 isprovided with a hook 38 at its upper end which rotatably engages the lower journal 31. The lever is provided with spaced apart portions 40'41 (Fig. 1) at its lower end which straddle the handle 11 adjacent the lower part of the cam and the roller 44 is pivotally mounted between said portions of the lever so as to have a rolling engagement with the cam 20 or at least with the outer part of the handle,

and'anyconvenient means, such as a cotter 45,

may be used to retain the roller between the portions.

The handle engages the lever at points 46 and 47, as shown in Fig. 5, to restrict the swinging movement of the handle toward the car but this desirable object may also be accomplished by the modification shown in Fig. 3, wherein the handle is provided with a pocket 48 which engages the roller 44.

The pocket 48 may be provided by offsetting the handle 11 outwardly so that the offset portion below the connection between the lever 14 and the handle 11, when the device is in normal position, is slightly beyond the roller 44 and its cotter pin 45 so that the operators hand will not be injured when he grabs the handle. The hood 50 is provided to further protect the operators hand.

The device is assembled as follows: The bracket is applied to the car and the handle is hooked into the upper journal of the bracket and is swung outwardly to a substantially horizontal position. The inner end of the operating rod is then connected to the coupler and its outer end is passed through the aperture in the lever; then the lever is hooked to the lower journal of the bracket; then the handle is lowered to a position between the spaced apart portions of the lever, after which the roller is secured in position. By this arrangement, a single unit (the cotter pin) holds the component parts in operative position.

The accompanying drawings illustrate the preferred form of the invention, though it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the exact details of construction shown and described, as it is obvious that various modifications thereof, within the scope of the claims, will occur to persons skilled in the art.

'I claim:

1. In a railway car, an operating means for use with a car coupler operable by the rotation of an operating rod, said means comprising a handle pivotally mounted upon the car, a lever pivotally mounted upon the car having a sliding engagement with said handle, said lever and handle arranged to swing only in a plane substantially normal to the end wall of the car, and an operating rod having its inner end operatively connected to said coupler and having its outer end slidably and non-rotatably connected to said lever.

2. In a railway car, an operating means for use with a car coupler operable by the rotation of an operating rod, said means comprising a handle pivotally mounted upon the car provided with an outwardly curved cam portion, a' lever pivotally mounted upon the car having a sliding engagement with the cam portion of said handle, said lever and handle arranged to swing only in a plane substantially normal to the end wall of the car, and an operating rod having its inner end operatively connected to said coupler and having its outer end slidably, and non-rotatably connected to said lever.

3. In a railway car, an operating means for use with a car coupler operable by the rotation of an operating rod, said means comprising a handle pivotally mounted upon the car, a lever pivotally mounted upon the car provided with a portion having a sliding engagement with said handle, and an operating rod having its inner end operatively connected to said coupler and having its outer end slidably and non-rotatably connected to said lever, said handle and said lever cooperatively engaging each other so as to restrict the swinging movement of the handle toward the car.

, 4. In a railway car, an operating means for use with a car coupler operable by the rotation of an operating rod, said means comprising a bracket mounted upon the car provided with an upper journal, a lower journal and a hood above each of said journals, a handle having a hook at its upper end pivotally engaging said upper journal, a lever having a hook at its upper end pivotally engaging said lower journal and having spaced apart portions at its lower end straddling the handle, a roller pivotally mounted between said portions so as to have a rolling engagement with the outer part of said handle, means to retain said roller between said portions, and an operating rod having its inner end operatively connected to said coupler and having its outer end slidably and non-rotatably connected to said lever, said journals, hoods, hooks and connection between the lever and handle so proportioned and arranged that neither the handle nor the lever can be disconnected from their journals until the handle has been disconnected from the lever.

5. In a railway car, an operating means for use with a car coupler operable by the rotation of an operating rod, said means comprising a bracket mounted upon the car provided with an upper journal, a lower journal and a hood above each of said journals, a handle pivotally engaging said upper journal, a lever having its upper end pivotally engaging said lower journal and having its lower end slidably engaging said handle, and an operating rod having its inner end operatively connected to said coupler and having its outer end slidably, and non-rotatably engaging said lever between its pivotal connection to the bracket and its engagement'with the handle.

6. In a railway car, an operating means for use with a car coupler operable by the rotation of an operating rod, said means comprising a bracket mounted upon the car provided with an upper journal, a lower journal, a handle pivotally engaging said upper journal, a lever having its upper end pivotally engaging said lower journal and having its lower end slidably engaging said handle, and an operating rod having its inner end operatively connected to said coupler and having its outer end slidably and non-rotatably engaging said lever between its pivotal connection to the bracket and its engagement with the handle.

CARL M. GOLDINGER. 

